The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has made a statement blaming the new law regarding Home Information Packs for exacerbating the currently shortage of UK housing supply. The new law, which came into effect in April, forces sellers to have the Pack in place, including the new Property Information Questionnaire in place before the property is marketed.

None the less, the new HIPS law has attracted a lot of criticism from within the industry, but some have also praised it as being good news for buyers.

Advocates say the new law means that the houses on sale are serious vendors, and also it means sellers are able to get all the facts straight about a property at the start of the process, rather than finding out something the scuppers the sale down the line costing both parties money.

While the new HIPS law may not be the only, or even the main reason behind the tightening of supply in UK housing stocks, we certainly think it is not helping the situation.

As some of you will know, Zungalow allows its patrons to advertise a single property for sale for an annual fee of £29. For such a small fee, this would allow people to market their property on the off chance that someone would make an offer. Now that people will need to add the cost of a Home Information Pack onto that it makes it a little bit more costly, and perhaps out of the reach of some people.

The only way around it of course, is for the seller to make the Home Information Pack up themselves. Most people are daunted by the thought of preparing the pack themselves, but for people who want to market through Zungalow in such away could perhaps take their time over it.

People who wish to create their own Home Information Pack can find a list of the documents in must contain and the optional documents here, and download the Property Information Questionnaire here

Then it is the cost of a few phone-calls, gallons of petrol, and a fair bit of paperwork to create your own Home Information Pack and Property Information Questionnaire, to allow you to sell your property privately for only £29 per year on Zungalow.com.